The Grizzlies got the big shot from Gay, who rebounded over the Sixers’ Evan Turner and dropped in a stick-back of a Jerryd Bayless miss.

Out of a timeout, Jrue Holiday dished to Thad Young for a five-footer in the lane, but Young’s potential game-winner clanged off the glass, then the rim, and out of bounds. Out of another stop, with 1.3 seconds to go, Marc Gasol blocked Nick Young’s 3-point attempt from the right corner as time expired.

Advertisement

This close to winning consecutive games for the first time in more than two months, the Sixers let another one slip away.

Turner shot 12-for-18 with a season-best 27 points and seven assists, Holiday had 18 points and 10 assists and Young paired 23 points with seven boards for the Sixers (18-26).

The Sixers got Doug Collins back from a temporary leave. Collins missed most of the second half Saturday while dealing with a sinus infection, and left Sunday’s practice in the hands of associate head coach Michael Curry.

Looking for their first winning streak since the end of November, Collins went with the hot hands. Embers must have still been burning from the other night, when the Sixers torched the division-leading New York Knicks by 17. Another hot start got the Sixers going in the right direction.

The Sixers couldn’t miss early on, with a bucket coming from each of their starters – Nick Young and Spencer Hawes among them to make it two in a row with that lineup –in the opening five minutes. That’s when the Sixers made each of their first six attempts, and nine of 10, to take a substantial lead on Memphis.

Thad Young’s head-turning, three-pivot lay-up late in the first gave the Sixers a 17-point lead, at 32-15. Ultimately, the Sixers took a 33-20 lead into the second, which made it two straight games in which the Sixers owned the lead after one.

Baby steps, right?

Against the Grizzlies, who own the NBA’s best scoring defense, dropping in 33 points in the first quarter was a good sign. For a struggling team like the Sixers, who had won only six of their previous 22 games, they’ll take it.

Nonetheless, that gigantic first-quarter lead didn’t last. Neither did that 65-percent shooting.

Memphis roared back into the game by outscoring the Sixers, 37-21, in the second quarter, and by hitting 14 of 18 shots from the floor. By halftime, it was three-point Memphis lead, at 57-54.

Marc Gasol and Jerryd Bayless triggered the comeback, combining for 33 points in the first half.

Vying to keep their lead, the Sixers seemed to counter just about every time the Grizzlies cut their deficit to single digits. It was an eight-point game … then Jrue Holiday sliced through traffic for a baseline runner. Another eight-point margin … then Holiday found Thad Young alone in the lane for a baby hook.

That wasn’t enough in the first 24 minutes to overcome Gasol, who was having a field day in the post, and Bayless, a starter in place of late scratch Mike Conley.

The Sixers turned to one of their usual contributors to rally back in a game that was well in hand at one point.

Evan Turner shot 7-for-9 in the third, including makes on his final four shots, for 14 points in the period. His biggest was a pull-up jumper from 17 feet on the team’s final possession of the quarter, evening the score at 79-all heading into the fourth.

Back and forth they went for most of the fourth, too.

It took a block by Memphis’ Rudy Gay to stop Turner from hitting another back-breaker, with the Grizzlies already ahead, 90-85. But Royal Ivey paired a 3-pointer with an assist on a fastbreak lay-in by Thad Young on consecutive trips up the floor to knot the game at 90.

It was still a one-possession game into the final minute, until Gay rebounded a Bayless miss over Turner and buried a stick-back to put Memphis ahead by one.

NOTE: Lavoy Allen left the game in the fourth quarter, when he got a few sutures to close a gash in his upper lip.